-He crossed the border on 31 March, he voluntarily declared he was in possession of weapons (a fully loaded AR-15, a .45 caliber pistol, a 12 gauge shotgun) and was arrested by Mexican authorities.
-He has been held in a Mexican jail/prison since then, has had 3 lawyers and a couple of court dates.

From what I gather there are two sides of the story --

His side: He was going south on I-5 to meet friends in San Ysidro for dinner, he missed the last exit on the freeway and ended up in Mexico. I saw a video on the news of the exit and yeah, it is really confusing and if he was not in the left hand lane there was no way for him to execute a U-turn and not cross the border.

The less heard side: A receipt from the Hotel Nelson, a somewhat historic $20.00 a night “hotel abutting Tijuana’s Zone de Tolerancia” has been uncovered, issued to Andrew Tahmooressi on the afternoon of the day he was arrested for entering Mexico.

I read this today, the story seems to be sympathetic to his side of the story

I am definitely sympathetic to his position and state of affairs, at the same time ... he ended up in a foreign country in possession of weapons which is counter to their law. I have seen articles very critical of the President for not getting him out of jail (while working to liberate Sgt Bergdahl) and focusing on Sgt Tahmooressi's PTSD while giving brief acknowledgement that he did end up in Mexico of his own volition and again ... in violation of their law.

It seems to be a crap situation all around. It seems the Mexican legal system is moving even slower than ours, it is reasonable (based on the video of the highway at the border crossing) that he got confused about the twists and turns of the road and that once in any of the right lanes he was essentially unable to turn around (if it were me and I really didn't want to go further ... hell ... just stop in the road until you can cross over ... but ... ) it also seems that he had been to Mexico a few times in the past and was likely going back for the evening.

efmbman

07-18-2014, 01:36 PM

It seems to be a crap situation all around. It seems the Mexican legal system is moving even slower than ours, it is reasonable (based on the video of the highway at the border crossing) that he got confused about the twists and turns of the road and that once in any of the right lanes he was essentially unable to turn around (if it were me and I really didn't want to go further ... hell ... just stop in the road until you can cross over ... but ... ) it also seems that he had been to Mexico a few times in the past and was likely going back for the evening.

Something about this story doesn't add up to me. If he had been to Mexico a few times in the past, wouldn't he be familiar with the crossing area? Was the crossing area changed since his last visit? Did he usually cross at a different area?

In addition, wouldn't he also be familiar with the prohibition on bringing guns regardless of where he crossed?

Measure Man

07-18-2014, 02:34 PM

His side: He was going south on I-5 to meet friends in San Ysidro for dinner, he missed the last exit on the freeway and ended up in Mexico. I saw a video on the news of the exit and yeah, it is really confusing and if he was not in the left hand lane there was no way for him to execute a U-turn and not cross the border.

I haven't been down there lately, but I used to go regularly to Tijuana on the I-5. Well, down to the border anyway...I would park on the U.S. side and walk across the border.

It's true if you miss that last exit, you are screwed...but, I've never found anything confusing about it, and I'm easily confused...and there are warning signs for a mile or more before the last exit that tell you "Last exit coming up...get off now...last chance" etc.

I suppose someone who had been there before might be more likely to make the mistake, since if it's your first time, you definitely pay attention to those warnings...possible he got complacent and it snuck up on him.

CYBERFX1024

07-18-2014, 03:13 PM

I have read and looked into this quite a bit because I was intrigued as well about what happened. No it was not the I-5. It was another street down around San Diego. Supposedly he got turned around and was going down a one way road in San Diego, the road goes north and then loops back down to the border. There was no way for him to turn around at and no signs at THAT time indicating that it was going to Mexico, until you are actually in Mexico. He then flagged down a Mexican border control agent and told him everything, he then was arrested due to the firearms (which he told them about).

He originally did go to TJ and left his vehicle at the last US exit and walked over the border. He spent the day partying with friends then crossed back over. He then was going back to downtown SD.

garhkal

07-18-2014, 06:57 PM

Since we have millions of illegals here, why are we concerned about Mexico's laws, especially since THEY don't seem to give a ship about them in regards to the millions of illegals who cross THROUGH Mexico to come here..?